Alone Together
Sherry Turkle Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together book discusses social robots and the relationships human beings today have with them. Turkle is interested in human’s increasing need for a relationship with these machines than the actual machines themselves. In her book she talks about the companionship people get out of machines and how today, it is preferred over companionship with other human beings. A more in-depth look at the issues she discussed in her previous books, The Second Self and Life on a Screen, Alone Together looks at what machines do to us in relation to companionship without friendship. The book goes beyond the machines themselves and into their abilities to act in a way that is human in a non-demanding way. "We are lonely but fearful of intimacy” is the simple truth that every single person knows but would probably never admit in today’s society (Turkle, 2011). It is the reason why people become so attached to all these machines. The machines become things you can depend on when you are feeling lonely and are something that doesn’t ask for anything in return. It’s the perfect companion that allows one to be selfish and it doesn’t matter. Today’s machines allow the feeling of someone always being there which provides them with an ongoing sense of comfort. Whether they are physically alone or surrounded by people they are able to access a life outside of reality through their phones, handheld gaming systems, their iPad, etc., and automatically they are consoled. With these machines today, people are losing their sense of communication and forgetting how to interact with people. Machines are now interacting with us in a way that feels human-like to people yet isn’t. IPhone that now have Siri are speaking directly to us yet giving us only the answers me want to hear, which isn’t what a realistic conversation will be like. This takes away from humans being able to act human and developing out social and intellectual abilities. History of Cell Phones 1977 – First cell phone made in Chicago Michael Faraday “In 1843 a man by the name of Michael Faraday studied to see if space could conduct electricity. This man ead to the cell phone development” (ThinkQuest). Doctor Mahlon Loomis “In the year of 1865 Doctor Mahlon Loomis was the first person to communicate through wireless atmosphere. He came up with the idea of transmitting and receiving messages through atmosphere as a conductor. Loomis was awarded 50,000 for his research” (ThinkQuest). Martin Copper “In 1973 Martin Copper came up with Motorola. He took the project and let the people of New York see it" (ThinkQuest). 1988 - Big companies began to make cell phones 2000 – Free trial for people with cell phone 2007 – First IPhone References Apple - iPhone. (n.d.). Apple - iPhone. Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/iphone/ Bellis, M. (2013, December 20). Who Invented The iPhone?. About.com Inventors. Retrieved from http://inventors.about.com/od/istartinventions The History of Cell Phones. (n.d.). ThinkQuest. Retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/00047/historycell Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other. New York: Basic Books.